melody ~SOUNDS REAL~

melody ~SOUNDS REAL~ was ayaka’s 2nd single. It was released on May 10, 2006 and reached number 14 on the charts with 11,707 copies sold. In all this single has sold over 24,466+ copies. To commemorate her first live tour this single was released. It was a limited edition single and limited to only 50,000 copies. The song Blue Days was used as an insert for the drama Suppli. This was also the second single in the First Message Era.

Review:
If country is your thing, you’re sure to love melody. The song begins very country like with drums and the guitar. ayaka then sings in those deep vocals of her, and they’re very impressive. The instrumentals were as great as ever, the whole country feel was pretty strong. The verses sounded so fantastic, and so catchy. You could sing to it, that’s how good it was. But the chorus was such a blast. With ayaka singing “melody” you become hooked. The English, no matter how little there was, was perfect and the lyrics were fantastic. It’s hard not to become addicted to the chorus. The bridge was an amazing guitar solo that’ll blow your socks off. And her ad-libbing at the end was just so excellent!
Blue Day is the softer and uses more acoustic based instruments. An acoustic guitar serves as the intro, and a lovely one at that. However the song sounds very sad, with deep vocals and the slow pace. I was really losing interest in this song until a little after the minute point, there ayaka’s vocals become more powerful. But then it started to recede a bit. But towards the last part of the song, it got better. This song was more like a roller coaster, one loop after another, good and bad.

Live versions of songs usually aren’t the best, mostly because the instrumentals aren’t the same and because the artist’s vocals are off. However, melody -Live Version- was just as good as the original version, if not better. I loved it how she was able to keep her vocals the same as the single. And the fiddle was very nice, and country.

Now Sha・la・la -Live Version- is a very interesting song, due to the fact that the original version wasn’t released until her first album. The piano and the tambourine were the main instruments and occasionally the fiddle would appear. To be honest with you this song didn’t peak my interest that much. It sounded nice but that was about it. I’ll have to hear the original version before I make my final decision. I did like ayaka’s vocals though, very strong.

I had mixed feelings about Blue Day, but Blue Days -Live Version- was made me dislike the song. ayak’s vocals were jut too soft for me, and the instrumentals weren’t really that great. Not the best live rendition.

Overall Review: melody ~SOUNDS REAL~ was a country and acoustic heaven. I was shocked that most of these songs sounded very country-like, and naturally very acoustic friendly. I did enjoy it though, but I really didn’t care much for most of the live versions. The music does make me question what kind of artist ayaka is, country or J-Pop, either way is fine; and whether the guitar will become her main instrument like YUI. Still ayaka is definitely a great artist. Another great single for the First Message Era.